Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Merit vs. Tradition

In proposing to scrap across-the-board wage increases in favor of merit pay, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is pushing a daring experiment in labor relations that has enraged the city unions and has rarely been tried elsewhere.

Mr. Giuliani's plan is unusual because while a sizable number of cities and school districts award workers merit pay in addition to general pay increases, it is almost unheard of for a government body to persuade a union to accept merit pay as the sole basis for raises.

Despite the rarity of such merit pay plans, Mr. Giuliani is vigorously championing his proposal, calling it the key to bolstering productivity in the city's schools and offices. But leaders of the municipal unions vow to block any pay plan that does not include an across-the-board pay increase, noting that many of their members are still fuming about the two-year wage freeze in their current five-year contract.

Many labor experts say they expect a compromise that would be less radical than the mayor's plan but that could still usher in major changes. Such a compromise might involve a modest across-the-board wage increase with merit pay sprinkled on top.

The school district in Fairfax County, Va., is one of the few governmental entities to adopt a merit plan similar to the one the mayor envisions. For several years, Fairfax's schools embraced merit pay as the sole basis for pay increases, but the school board eventually decided to drop that plan because it created rancor among teachers and because there was little evidence it was improving results for low-performing students.

''The Fairfax County plan created intense bitterness in the schools,'' said Rick Nelson, president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers. ''It gave teachers an incentive to compete against each other and not share ideas.''

The Denver school system is experimenting with a similar plan, but it has been limited to a two-year pilot program, with only 350 teachers allowed to participate.

Mr. Giuliani's proposal has won considerable support from conservatives because it is tough on labor. But union leaders say it collides with their demands that all city workers deserve a substantial raise to keep up with inflation. The city's union leaders say they feel betrayed that the mayor would talk about denying municipal workers an increase in base pay when the city's economy is booming and the city has a hefty budget surplus.

Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said she would consider merit pay incentives only if the mayor first agreed to substantial wage increases -- probably greater than inflation -- to make teacher salaries, as well as police salaries, more competitive with suburban counterparts.

''Before you even consider the mayor's proposal, everyone has to realize that if we don't get base pay up, how are we going to fill the 54,000 teaching positions that will have to be filled over the next five years?'' she said. ''There is a nationwide teacher shortage, which just gets worse in New York City when its teacher salaries are so much lower than those in the suburbs.''

Ms. Weingarten, who also serves as chairwoman of the Municipal Labor Committee, which coordinates bargaining for unions representing more than 200,000 workers, said she might consider what she called merit incentives or differentials. But her vision of merit is sharply different from the mayor's.

Mr. Giuliani outlined a plan in which a teacher's performance would be rated on a four- or five-part scale. A teacher then might receive merit increases accordingly, perhaps 6 percent for those rated highest down to those on the bottom, who might not receive any raise at all.

Ms. Weingarten said merit plans should not be based on performance, which she said was hard to measure. Instead, she said, teachers should receive merit increases when they reach new skill levels, like being declared ''master teachers'' by a certifying board.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Labor leaders in New York, as elsewhere, are wary about merit pay, fearing that it will divide union members and be awarded based on subjective rather than objective criteria, with supervisors' favorites getting the bulk of the rewards.

Last year in New Jersey, the main union representing state workers fought bitterly against Gov. Christine Todd Whitman's plan to consider only merit, and not seniority, when deciding which civil servants to lay off. After a lengthy battle, the two sides compromised, agreeing to let seniority continue to play a major role, while allowing merit to be taken into account in a limited way.

In the cities and states where merit increases or bonuses are sprinkled on top of general pay increases, the plans have received mixed reviews. In Maryland, 35,000 unionized state workers can receive $500 bonuses if their work exceeds general standards or $1,000 bonuses if their work is considered outstanding.

''It's a real incentive to employees to be more productive,'' said Andrea Fulton, executive director of the state's personnel department.

Union officials are less enthusiastic, saying they found the plan acceptable only because it came on top of a sizable wage increase, 8 percent over two years.

''We were concerned that it would lead to favoritism, and our fears are being borne out,'' said Steven Kreisberg, assistant director for collective bargaining at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Professor Richard Murnane of the Harvard School of Education, who conducted a lengthy study on merit pay in schools, said he found that it did little to improve the quality of education. ''There's not a single instance in which merit pay for individual teachers has been shown to improve the performance of a troubled school district,'' he said.

He said merit pay appears to achieve better results in schools in wealthier districts, although he added that a major problem with merit pay plans was that they could undermine teamwork.

''When schools really work, it's because teachers work together,'' he said. ''The potential for individuals to behave in a way that reduces the effectiveness of their colleagues is immense.''

Sol Stern, a fellow with the Manhattan Institute, a generally conservative research center in New York, insisted that merit pay would go far to improve New York's schools.

''It's absolutely essential that we have a mechanism in the contract for distinguishing between effective teachers and ineffective teachers,'' he said. ''Teaching is the only enterprise I know of where management does not monitor the productivity of the employees.''

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this an analysis; news analysis appears in print on January 29, 2000, on Page B00002 of the National edition with the headline: Merit vs. Tradition. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe